Have you tried doing a subject planner Donna Young style? I plan on doing this next year so I don't know how it will work in practice but it sounds good. http://www.donnayoung.org/forms/planners/term.htm She says to plan out your subjects on a subject planner and then transfer them into your weekly planner one week at a time. That way if something does get out of sync it doesn't throw the whole schedule off.

Great post April! I love that way of looking at it. I am going all in but I really enjoy the different perspective that I had never thought of. I too am all for DE. Looking at the age of my kids resale is just a very distant thought and I don't mind working off the computer at all. I thought I would and I too print out the assignment pages so I can flip through them but the DE is very convenient.

I don't think there is any way to know without buying it and it makes my wonder if maybe this is a bit of a marketing blunder on their part. For year one for ug history you need a Bible and one $20 book. In looking at the year plan I don't see any reason I couldn't use those as a Read aloud for lg and ug. This same book is suggested in the year plan as a substitute for D level students if you are on a strict budget. You would never know this without buying the year. This is not the norm BTW but I do think it really looks worse than it is. SOTW is on the alt list as a spine as another example. I think maybe they should make that more clear (but who am I?:D)

Is this why TOG has a reputation of being expensive? Because if you just look at the bookshelf you are looking at so much more than the necessities. Marcia (the author) states over and over that no one will do everything. At R level price will get higher and if I had unlimited resources I could really go to town :001_smile: but I don't think you have to spend that much. Definitely if TOG is not what fits your family then that changes the whole conversation. There is no arguing that TOG is cheap. :D I just think that maybe there is a misconception about how expensive it really is.

Am I correct in understanding that with MFW you would buy 1st, 2nd/3rd, 5 year cycle, then move on to high school with a 4 year cycle? That is 11 TM or am I wrong? I agree that the books are THE big cost. It seems even if you follow WTM you either get these at the library or buy them thus equal cost it seems to me.:confused: I guess that is what confuses me. Thank you Shanvan for your words on money. I have felt like this would be money very well spent. I feel right about it for my family. DH leaves this stuff up to me but he is more than okay with it. I personally think it is very important at R stage - just my opinion. I think it is definitely "dessert" in the grammar stage and I guess my theory is that having a solid understanding at D level will make you able to dig deeper the next time through. It would be interesting to hear how others see it.

This thread brought up a couple of questions that I though might be better answered on a separate thread. First off I know that TOG is not for everyone. For me however I knew right off the bat it was what I wanted for R level and I figured why not start now. My questions then are 1) Is there anything to really compare TOG to? I mean if you want that depth of history and that level of literary analysis is there anywhere else to get it? 2) Why is it considered so expensive? The closest I could see to compare was MFW and it was very similar in cost. I guess if you want what TOG has to offer how would you go about doing it for less. I paid $250 this year for the year plan and some ug and lg books. On my next time through I will have to spend $0. I plan to use whatever is left of our budget to stock bookshelves but that is just my preference. I love TOG but explaining the cost (especially IRL) is hard. I don't think the cost is bad at all - and we are poor by most people's standards. Am I missing something?

Thank you for this. CLE is one of the programs I am trying to choose between so your success story is good to hear.:001_smile:

I wanted to add that figuring cost on just year 1 is not a fair comparison because there are some spendy books that will be used for more than one year so subsequent years would be less.

I just recently figured this out so I will add my .02 (no pun intended) on the cost issue. I figured based on choosing either a lg or ug history (only core) and bunching together, skipping lg lit unless I could get it at library, buying most ug lit for year 1 since library carries almost none of it and my library carries most lit for other years so buying books that really looked enjoyable for my own library (about half -maybe more). I bought an activity book to share for ug and lg and no worldview beyond Bible. D level I bought worldview, same lit as above (all year 1 - pick and choose others) and history core - no in depth. R level basically same as above plus government and philosophy and in depth history. All 4 year plans DE and map aids and writing aids. Grand Total $4000.00 Yikes! But then I thought divided by 4 kids divided by 12 years = $83 / year / kid for history and worldview that you just cannot get anywhere else, lit, fine arts and writing. Wow - not bad. This is by the way with a very poor library. This is my number and someone with one kid would spend a lot less over all but a lot more per child. Someone with ten kids would spend about the same which would make it even more cost effective. I sincerely hope this helps someone with their decision.

I spent a lot of time searching old threads on MUS last night. 8FillTheHeart have you looked since they added the honors segment? I also started to wonder if maybe it is an urban legend because while I saw many posts saying it was not as rigorous, I did not see any post stating that their child actually had a problem going into college level maths. It made me curious.

I *think* that if you had any computer trouble they would fix you up and let you download again with out a problem. TOG obviously isn't for everyone but I wouldn't let computer worries be even a little bit of a factor in using it. I have watched their forum for awhile and it seems any time someone has a concern (moving, computer crash, more than one computer in home) they have an answer. :001_smile:

Thank you Jackie. All your info has been very helpful. I have been very frustrated by wanting SM to work but just seeing that it isn't (and I'm only in first grade:tongue_smilie:). Right now I own MUS Alpha, CLE 100's and SM 1a - 2b. I didn't know this was going to be so hard! DH is being supportive about "figure it out now - not when she is 12" but I don't really want to purchase another, KWIM? Okay, I really like the way concepts are introduced in MUS but I don't know about the S & S. *I* like everything about SM but my dd is not "getting" it (I suspect the problem lies with teacher - not student). I think the spiral aspect of CLE might be good for dd but I see that the "why" is not being touched on at all. Will MM solve all this?:001_smile:

Another question for Corraleno (sorry). Your comparison is very helpful. As such a newbie I'm scared of a program not being "road tested". How long have you been using MM and anyone could answer how long has MM light blue series been around? TIA.

How ironic. I had bookmarked it and just this afternoon got around to actually looking at it.:D

Is this it? http://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/cia/math/Routines.html#mental

:hurray:

No, but I did look at it. I think it is only $8 so I considered it. I wish they had more sample pages. I couldn't decide if it would be worth it. I honestly have been very confused since the holidays. I have gone back and forth between ditching SM and sticking with it so many times. Since I am recommitted to using SM I should really look into these again. Have you used or seen the EP books?

Thank you, I bookmarked both.

I just had to smile. My non mathy dd has spent the past month (at least) going over "making tens". I think the info in even 1a and 1b makes leaps that are hard for some kids to get. I *think* she got it on Thursday (YEAH!) but it has been slow going and I don't know how moving into subtraction with numbers to 20 will go. I really want to stick with it though so we are going to continue slowly and use CLE to supplement. I think their drill and incremental approach will be a nice balance. So to OP question - I think SM can work but... um.... I'll have to get back to you in a few years.:001_smile: BTW I am loving these interesting SM threads.

Does anybody have a resource they turn to when they want to know what age it is appropriate for. I am going through my own childhood books and I don't exactly remember how old I was when I read them.:D I also know that I wasn't reading Little House, Charlotte's Web when I was six. I was about to box them up when I glanced through Medieval Mom's book lists and saw Baby Island listed for first grade. How do I go about figuring this out? I have Baby-Sitters Club, All of a Kind Family, more books about 11 yo's and their horses than I care to admit:tongue_smilie:, books authored by Rebecca Caudill, Robert Lawson, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary and I'll just stop there. I don't want to read them all to determine their age appropriateness but if I have to I will - it could be interesting. Thanks.

I too have been following this thread and found it incredibly helpful. We have gotten "stuck" in SM so tried MUS - I love but really too easy for dd. CLE arrived last week and after looking through it for a few days I think it looks wonderful. However, I do not want to give up on SM (especially after this thread:D). My thought right now is to introduce new concepts with SM - probably one day a week - and use CLE every day. I don't know if this helps but thank you for all your help. BTW my 4 yo seems to "get" math in a way that is amazing to me so with him I will hopefully stick with SM and use things like IP to supplement it. It is too hard for me to pass up a program that is so far above the rest just because it has some weaknesses for my dd. You can't tell me that every kid in Singapore is "mathy". I think it is just going to be a matter of finding what works for each teacher and student. For my dd that means two math programs. Now hopefully my plan works as good in practice as it does in my head.:tongue_smilie:

That is what we are using. I just recently added spelling but you wouldn't have to. CTGE 1 has a lot of phonics. I will add spelling and writing next year for 2nd.

I know someone more experienced than me will chime in with more help but I would combine the 4th, 2nd, Ker for read aloud from either the ug or lg history selection. Pick and choose based on price, content, etc. Give ug lit assignments but skip lit with lg kids until Unit 2 (at least) to get started. HTH!

I think the last post covered it pretty well as far as topics go. I am using A with my 4 yo and he is flying through it. I think we will have to slow down with B and will use that for next year. I wish I had used it with dd because I think she would have been much better prepared for 1a than she has been. We used a B & N Kindergarten book for her and it was a joke. I bought EB for son but it just seemed expensive and still not thorough enough (IMO). I have not used all of it but I think Essential Math is very good - especially B - for a "real" K math program.

If he didn't pass the 1a I would say you want to start him with 1a - make sense? If you think he needs more review I was not impressed with the Earlybird books. I really like Essential Math which is meant to go before the Primary series but is much better in my opinion. I think the B book looks quite challenging.